Obama's Podesta Hire

The new White House adviser isn't there to govern from the center.

Dec. 22, 2013 6:24 p.m. ET

One of President Obama's political talents is his ability to portray any sort of trouble as something that only affects lesser mortals. This lets him appear to be gliding through his Presidency as if everything bad that happens is someone else's worry, not to mention someone else's fault. His end-of-year press conference on Friday was typical in that he batted away questions like a President whose job approval were 57%, not 42%.